The Curse of the Christian Caste System

Posted Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Matthew 23:2-10, “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men. But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is Christ.”

India is mocked because of its caste system. Though illegal since 1947, I have found that in practice it is alive and well. The flesh of man enjoys the caste system. It is like bigotry in that it seems to be abhorred only by those who cannot practice it! Well, amen! As my Indian teacher says, “The world continues to be the world!” However, what about the Church? Should it be riddled with bigotry and a caste system of its own? It is, and you need have no doubt about it. The messages may not be overt (it would nearly be more palatable if they were), but the covert message is quite clear. Many in the “churches” have convinced those who join that they will never, in this life, arrive to a stature and standing that allows access into the deepest revelations of Christ. I do not just preach; I listen to heaps of preaching, and this is what I hear. Those who are single, those who have experienced a divorce, those who do not have children, those who have not been in “fulltime” ministry, and those who have rebellious children will never arrive as successful Christians. Blah, Blah, and more Blah! Many believe the deception, which simply put is that life with a small “l” translates into life with a capital “L.” There is a perceived disparity in life; for instance, that there is such a huge difference between those married to unbelievers and those married to believers, that those lacking marriage to believers are to take their rightful place in the sub-Christian caste. When it comes to life (with a lower case “l,” as in the world), there is a minimal difference between living with an unbeliever or a believer; however, when it comes to the thing of Life (with a capital “L,” the Life of Jesus within us), there is no difference. People who are successful in the world’s eyes--educated or having millions of dollars and prestige--are far more likely to commit suicide than those who have little. Jesus is using all of life—indeed, He holds all of life together--to teach us the things of the kingdom within us and the kingdom to come. He is not fighting divorce, singleness, and failure but using those to bring man to the revelation of Himself. If you fit into any of the above categories and have been led by man to feel inferior in your walk with God, please, please, do not let a Pharisee define your spiritual condition. God is using everything in your life to bring you to Life. Phil. 3:7-11, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” If you have had struggles, failures, and calamity in the things of “life,” do not let anyone tell you that it translates into a failure in “Life.” You have come to Him; you do not dwell in a lower level of the Christian life; you are blessed. Is the world living according to His standards? No! Not to worry: He is not fighting the world but using it. He has used it in your life to bring you to Him. Rejoice!

My second point is in regard to the “Christian Club,” which is how I have come to regard a building which houses the gathering of believers, as opposed to speaking of the corporate Church, the Body of Christ. Actually, the club reminds me of a cruise ship, where there is an activity for everyone, and the talk of the day may be how big the ship is compared to the bigger one with even more amenities soon to be sailing. There is so much going on that is not Biblical in the club, and it is interesting watching people get around that fact. They remind me of researchers at the university slowly starting to build a teaching based upon nothing. Next, something is added to the nothing, and inevitably there are additions to the additions of the nothing. The whole purpose is to distance themselves from the nothingness at the base and to appear to be logical and Biblical. The desired end result is a very "firm" teaching with strict "Biblical" rules for how "spiritual dancing," "falling down in the Spirit," "worship," "inner healing prayers," and "casting out demons” is to be done, still with no Biblical foundation. Then brother Mike comes along and asks the obvious question, "Where is this in the Bible?" Of course, in their minds every question was laid to rest long ago, and the "fact" that they are in the truth is proven by a multitude of experiences. The goal is to have enough positive irrefutable experiences to outweigh the dearth of evidence for those "manifestations" in the Bible. Again I ask for Biblical evidence. This is followed by blank stares, lengthy examples of "their experiences," and, finally, sympathy for one like me who has not had the revelation. However, I kept asking, "But where is it in the Bible? Would Paul cheat us by giving no instructions?" Finally, we shift to a different topic, and they go on building the system with their experiences.

Is it possible that a club can transition to the expression of a Church? For a church is to be an expression of Life. It will make that transition when it no longer goes about the activity of creating Christians, but recognizes them. When it is no longer consumed with having every stick in place without a spark, but it is old wood drenched in water, yet ablaze. It will make that transition when the goal is lifting up Jesus, not just in word but in fact. This will be revealed by certain attitudes. It won’t have the attitude that another group is "doing" something that brings in more people, or the accompanying attitude that “we lost one.” It will not imitate anther branch but participate in the Life of its own branch. It won't send out surveys to see what the people need, but will stand in the conviction that it already knows the need, and the need is Jesus. It won't view itself as the machine that is the mechanism for coming to Christ. Pentecost killed religion; Church is any place and any time that the Lord comes “where two or more are gathered.” I remember in South Africa when He came in response to prayer and a slave girl’s reading. Jesus is silent about the strategy of making a “successful church,” because the plan of action was always to be connected with His Life. A machine takes strategy, but the Vine is Life, producing not plastic fruit but living grapes. Do I have a strategy? Yes! Go where the people are, lift up Jesus, and see what it is to which He witnesses. It has worked, if “worked” is the word people want to hear. It works in "dead" churches, "live” churches; it works over a coffee table or at a bus stop. I have never been limited by environment. If Christ were to be limited by the environment, then the environment is greater than He. The church today is full of formulas: sit, sing, sit, sing, pray. It is enough. Something could look like a club and not be. Something could look like a bus station and be a Church. Something could be invisible and be a Church. We must throw out our definitions, for we hear “Church life” and think “program in a big building,” we do not think “invisible.” Is the purpose of the program to touch the inner man's needs, or is it calculated to touch the needs of the outer man and move the flesh? Could the program operate without Christ? Was Pentecost an expression of Christ, or did it create His coming? Is the Holy Spirit waiting for a program to act? Is the Holy Spirit waiting for me to act, or is the Holy Spirit waiting for me to receive Life and move and breathe, and then He will move me to where I need to be? It is interesting to look at Christian Companies; have they created a "Christian environment"? What is a Christian environment? What about the Church Company, the Christian Club? How does building an entertainment center for the youth balance with needs of the unemployed? Generally speaking, new curtains will never give way to someone’s cancer treatment payments; the bricks will be more important than the unemployed. How could the Church in China grow without any of the externals? Where do you see the early Church joking around in order to have something relevant? The Life they expressed was relevant. If, for argument’s sake, it is possible to move out of the Spirit and into the flesh, what would a fleshly program look like, and what would a spiritual program look like? How do statistics help? Are the statistics that we get relevant to the needs of the inner man? What avenues into a man's heart are legitimate? Is what makes a strategy good or bad the goal? Which is easier to follow, the strategy or the Spirit? If we install a program, can we be creative, or does a program by its very nature kill creativity? If creativity is copied, is it still creativity? Why are there people who really do love God--and the Spirit witnesses to it—and yet are sick and tired of the club? We cannot say they are just trying to cause strife. If they could hear something about Jesus and how He works outside the box of religion, then even in the worst setting they would come alive. Where is there such a thing as a minister of music in the Bible? Why does a Church hire outside the congregation for its staff? Is there something wrong with making the statement that "We are the Church" instead of asking, "How are we to be the Church"? Are there more believers this year and last year because of the new programs? Amen, a Christian carpenter will hammer a nail pretty much the same way a non-Christian does. When we are looking at the club, we should go easy, for we do not know how God has led, worked, or brought people to this vision. Still, somehow the building has come to be the place of a seeker service for unbelievers, a fellowship of unbelievers, so that cannot be the Church. It can be a valid form of outreach; hundreds of places are valid forms of outreach. However, Jesus did not bring people in, but He sent the disciples out, and Church was the gathering of believers. What we call “church” is a transvestite, a method of outreach dressed up in clothes and called the “church.” It is confusing because the clothes do not fit what is underneath. A believer will often have trouble in this dating relationship.

I am seeing it clearly. How can I be bound and then required to do something? The moment I believe in Him for life in heaven, He binds me, so I must not be able to live the life on earth. Do you remember the Head, the man in the Amazon region without any limbs? He is the full image of Jesus. What can He do but rest? This is our inner life. We cannot perform; we cannot do it. I am sick and tired of beating myself up over requirements that I have made for myself; He did not make them for me, because He bound me. No more waking up full of self-hatred, regrets, and guilt; He never required those things out of a dead man. His death was for sin, and my death was for Life. The purpose of my crucifixion is so I will be forced to live on the earth the same way He did, in full dependence on the Father, doing nothing on His own, like the Head.